Bio and Photos can also be viewed within this Google Folder.
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BELOW ARE VARIOUS BIOGRAPHIES FOR SHARING IN DIFFERENT CAPACITIES – From Short introductions at events to longer bio for inclusions in booklets/programs, etc. Please use what is needed for your event. Scroll down for photos to use. Please credit the photographers (as listed in the file name).
For intros at event and for programs:
Felicia ‘Fe’ Montes (M.A./M.F.A.) is a MeXicana Indigenous holistic artivist, femcee, designer, poet, professor, public scholar, and practitioner of the healing arts from East Los Angeles. She is the co-founder and director of Mujeres de Maiz, In Lak Ech, Botanica del Barrio and El MERCADO y Mas and an Assistant Professor in Chicanx/Latinx Arts and Social Practice at Cal State University Long Beach. She has published in the books Fleshing the Spirit, Voices from the Ancestors, and MeXicana Fashions and is the co editor of the book Mujeres de Maiz en Movimiento: Spiritual Artivism, Healing Justice and Feminist Praxis (University of Arizona Press, 2024) www.FeliciaMontes.com
FULL (everything):
Felicia ‘Fe’ Montes is a Xicana Indigenous artist, activist, community & event organizer, educator, emcee, designer, poet, performer & professor living and working in the East Los Angeles area (Tongva Territory). She believes art is a tool for education, empowerment and transformation and has translated her passion for art and social justice as the cofounder and coordinating member of two groundbreaking creative women’s collectives, Mujeres de Maiz and In Lak Ech as well as the online mercado for the movement, El MERCADO. She currently serves as the founding executive director of Mujeres de Maiz and is an assistant professor of Chicanx/Latinx arts and Social Practice at Cal State Long Beach..
Felicia creates work based on social and spiritual change as she works on the front lines of activism and organizing. Known throughout the Southwest as an established Xicana cultural worker of a new generation, she has worked with most of the key arts and cultural centers and social service agencies in the greater East Los Angeles area including Self Help Graphics, Proyecto Pastoral and the United Farm Workers. She has also been influential in Los Angeles transnational art and organizing efforts including work with the Zapatistas, Peace & Dignity Journeys and La Red Xicana Indigena.
Felicia has both organized and performed in hundreds of cultural events, conferences, classrooms and protests for many artists and social justice causes for almost three decades. She has performed across the Southwest, Colombia and Mexico including Chiapas, Mexico City and Oaxaca. She has published in the books Voices from the Ancestors and Fleshing the Spirit, MeXicana Fashions and Rushing Waters, Rising Dreams, and the Aztlan Journal. Her most recent publication is co editing and publishing an article, art and poetry in the book about Mujeres de Maiz titled Mujeres de Maiz en Movimiento Spiritual Artivism, Healing Justice and Feminist Praxis (University of Arizona Press, 2024)
Felicia also creates visual and multimedia art and performances including silkscreen, installation and performance art and has exhibited both individual and collective work at places including 18th St. Art Center, Vincent Price Art Museum, the Shrem Museum, Self Help Graphics, LA Plaza de Cultura y Arte, The Cheech, the Oakland Museum of CA and other East LA cultural centers as well as campuses and community, streets and parks. Her work is also part of the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
As a healing arts practitioner, Felicia is an apprentice of Western Herbalism and studies and practices Mexican Traditional Medicine and Indigenous dance. Through La Botanica del Barrio, she offers wellness and self care workshops to a variety of audiences and ages and created her line of holistic health items.
Felicia creates altars and has helped to create Day of the Dead ceremonies and festivals based in the Aztec and Chicana/o artistic and spiritual tradition since 1997. In addition she facilitates monthly women’s talking circles every full moon since 2010. She also is a trained facilitator for young women’s rites of passage circle and serves as a consultant for the National Compadres Network. As a poet, singer and drummer of In Lak Ech, the Xicana Indigenous drum and song group, she has helped to facilitate circles and spaces.
Felicia holds a B.A from UCLA in World Arts & Cultures with a minor in Chicanx Studies and a M.A in Chicanx Studies from Cal State Northridge, and a MFA in Public Practice Art from Otis College of Art & Design. She also holds various certificates in wellness and college instruction.
With these papers, her clothing line, her performances and decades of work she has reached many communities and circles across Turtle Island and beyond with a message of women and Indigenous empowerment through art and activism. Check her out at http://www.feliciamontes.com
FEEL FREE TO USE THE PHOTOS BELOW FOR YOUR PROMOTIONS or PROGRAMS
Photographs by Textli Gallegos